Good progress today

Made good progress today on the glassing work.

In the morning I was able to glass the whole length of the inner starboard stringer where I had done the fillets yesterday. I mixed up some really fine grinding dust with some resin to "paint" over the rough fillet before glassing. It worked like a charm. The finished product looked really good, even if it is not apparent in the picture.

Then I cut out some fiberglass pieces to make proper backing blocks for the seacocks. What is or was in the boat was not satisfactory. Here is one of the pieces I cut out. My plan is to fiberglass several together to get 3/4" or better  thickness. Notice that the backing block is much larger diameter than the seacock.

 Here is example 1 of not a very good install.
They have used a piece of wood and I'll bet you that they drilled the bolt holes all the way though the hull. So I can look forward to more concealed rot and rusted bolts.

Example 2 of how not to do it. Notice that the backing block is the same diameter at the base of the seacock. Part of the idea of the backing block is to spread any loading on the seacock out to more of the hull. If the seacock gets stuck, like from not being closed for years it may take a fair amount of force to free it. Have not checked bolts to see if they go though all the way. It seems that each of these seacocks was installed by different people at different times.





Then in the afternoon I was able to put the final layer of 24 oz Combo-mat over the outer port stringer.

It turned out to be a larger job than I thought. So what's new, right. Wrapping the heavy glass from the hull  up, over , down the stringer and out onto the hull on the other side was not as easy as it would appear. You have to keep it tight to the existing structure or there will be bubbles which is not good. This is especially hard at the corners.  I will have to do it differently on the starboard side, as I do not have as much room to work in. I may try two layers of lighter material which will be easier to wrap.

I am tired and sore from all the awkward positions doing the glass work, but I am happy with the progress. I am almost ready to start the port fuel tank. I am really glad I am taking the time to get all this re-enforcing work done while I have the room to work. I was in too much of a hurry on the starboard side which makes doing the work harder now.